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You are going to love the Muse. Very responsive without being twitchy. Fly your regular newbie patterns, figure eights, etc. Push and pull turns. Practice the basic stuff. With the Muse...even the basics don't get boring. We will... of course....require you to post a picture of your Muse...

Good Luck!

Chris

Logged

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

I'm a HUGE fan of the Blue Moon Kites! I have the 61/49 (WONDERFUL SLK) and an Exile. Once you see what Ken does, you'll want more! The Muse should keep you happy for quite a while! However, you'll start to itch for more. At that point, read the reviews of Ken's other kites. Decide on which family you want to go for and then start building a family of standard, UL, and vented. (I just checked - the Mantis offers all 3 variations. Venting generally only partially helps with higher wind. Tricking is a LOT harder when the wind is really blowing.)

Personally, I like the wind lighter and prefer it any place below 8 mph so the Exile is my preference.

I'm starting to itch for something besides a dual because I've got a pile now - I'm thinking Ichiban...

I bought the Wisp for little to no wind and it was great. I was at the beach with two bags of kites and there was no wind, not even the palm trees were moving. So I got the wisp out and it flew amazing. And the best thing is that it is only 60 bucks.

I have all 3 Silver Foxes (Foxi?) in 2.5 size. The UL is not really, with the weights in the tail. I have problems flying in 6 mph winds (OK, so I'm no whiz).

I've found the Premier Addiction and Nighthawk can outfly the Fox in light winds. The Nighthawk also has good precision. I'm not a trickster, but I can easily axel both. They don't hold a turtle as well as the SF, tho.

I'm not saying the Blue Moon kites and SF's are not as good (I wish I had a Mamba). But that for lower winds, the Premier kites are easier to fly than the SF UL, and a lot less expensive. Well, the Addiction is much less expensive, and the Nighthawk marginally so. Neither is a true UL, but are better in my opinion than the SF in low winds. I've never flown a BMK, but hope to some day soon. I'm sure they'd fly circles around the other kites listed here.

I try to compare only kites that I have personally experienced under similar circumstances. I try to avoid "my favorite kite is an X so I know it is better than the Y which I have never flown." I am also reluctant to advise a novice flier to buy a top-of-the line kite, when there are so many good intermediate level kites to grow on. But take into account my perspective is an intermediate ballet flier, and less than novice trickster.

Now for an intermediate flier, with the resources, a top-of-the-line UL should be a serious contender.

Where I live, the winds are always bouncy (so I go to the coast to fly 90% of the time.) The only kite in my bag that handles bouncy winds decently is my Yin-Yang. But that is far from an UL - it works in our local gusty north-winds.

I have all 3 Silver Foxes (Foxi?) in 2.5 size. The UL is not really, with the weights in the tail. I have problems flying in 6 mph winds (OK, so I'm no whiz).

I've found the Premier Addiction and Nighthawk can outfly the Fox in light winds. The Nighthawk also has good precision. I'm not a trickster, but I can easily axel both. They don't hold a turtle as well as the SF, tho.

I'm not saying the Blue Moon kites and SF's are not as good (I wish I had a Mamba). But that for lower winds, the Premier kites are easier to fly than the SF UL, and a lot less expensive. Well, the Addiction is much less expensive, and the Nighthawk marginally so. Neither is a true UL, but are better in my opinion than the SF in low winds. I've never flown a BMK, but hope to some day soon. I'm sure they'd fly circles around the other kites listed here.

I try to compare only kites that I have personally experienced under similar circumstances. I try to avoid "my favorite kite is an X so I know it is better than the Y which I have never flown." I am also reluctant to advise a novice flier to buy a top-of-the line kite, when there are so many good intermediate level kites to grow on. But take into account my perspective is an intermediate ballet flier, and less than novice trickster.

Now for an intermediate flier, with the resources, a top-of-the-line UL should be a serious contender.

Where I live, the winds are always bouncy (so I go to the coast to fly 90% of the time.) The only kite in my bag that handles bouncy winds decently is my Yin-Yang. But that is far from an UL - it works in our local gusty north-winds.

I'll shut up now.

Hey there...It sounds like there might be something wrong with your SF UL. I know it's not a 'true' UL, but I would think that it should have a better bottom end than that...~Rob.

On the Kitelife forum, others have also mentioned the lack of light wind flying abilities of the SF "UL".

I have not tried it, but I read that removing the tail weight helps, (duh!) and some have removed the upper spreader. That would change the handling. I have been to lazy to try it. I figure that if a kite is supposed to fly in light winds, it should do so with all the normal flight aids attached.

However, yesterday I confirmed my prior comparison of the SF, Addiction, and Nighthawk. The latter have no tail weights, giving them some advantage wind-wise, but not trick-wise. I finally moved the SF bridle from the orange beads to the blue beads (that is kind of an SF insider thingy ). The speed picked up noticeably, the responses were quicker, and the straight line tracking was noticeably not so good - falling between the Addiction and the Nighthawk.

Still, I think there are better ULs than the Silver Fox. Without going into debt for a really great UL kite, though, I only have experience with an HQ Floater (decent beginner's kite - probably no trick potential, and no longer made), HQ Tango (replaced the Floater? - better but still not for intermediate fliers. Axels well, I do no other tricks), and HQ Breeze (Very nice UL or near UL beginner-intermediate, but old design which I think is no longer available) These are basically $50 to $150 kites I believe (I got them all at substantial discount)

If you find any useful information in the above, you are welcome to it!

Interesting, but If you are prefer the Addiction or Nighthawk to the SF 2.5 UL I don't think we are flying the same kite or we have radically different tastes in kites (and I like the the Nighthawk a lot).

Logged

Steve ... Ancient One-look to the sky with imagination, grasp the wind with outstretched arms and take flight

On the Kitelife forum, others have also mentioned the lack of light wind flying abilities of the SF "UL".

I have not tried it, but I read that removing the tail weight helps, (duh!) and some have removed the upper spreader. That would change the handling. I have been to lazy to try it. I figure that if a kite is supposed to fly in light winds, it should do so with all the normal flight aids attached.

However, yesterday I confirmed my prior comparison of the SF, Addiction, and Nighthawk. The latter have no tail weights, giving them some advantage wind-wise, but not trick-wise. I finally moved the SF bridle from the orange beads to the blue beads (that is kind of an SF insider thingy ). The speed picked up noticeably, the responses were quicker, and the straight line tracking was noticeably not so good - falling between the Addiction and the Nighthawk.

Still, I think there are better ULs than the Silver Fox. Without going into debt for a really great UL kite, though, I only have experience with an HQ Floater (decent beginner's kite - probably no trick potential, and no longer made), HQ Tango (replaced the Floater? - better but still not for intermediate fliers. Axels well, I do no other tricks), and HQ Breeze (Very nice UL or near UL beginner-intermediate, but old design which I think is no longer available) These are basically $50 to $150 kites I believe (I got them all at substantial discount)

If you find any useful information in the above, you are welcome to it!

Hey Howard….I have to do all of that monkey business to my Zephyr to get it to fly down to its advertised low end wind speed. Remove the upper spreader, adjust the bridle, remove the weight (I actually never fly the Zeph with the weight). If you’re a Kitelife member, you should have access to a video that John B. made flying the SF UL in some light winds. I don’t remember how low he was flying it in, but he sure did a nice job with it. I have flown the HQ Floater, it is more of a low wind kite than the Zephyr, but not as tricky. The HQ Shadow is excellent for low winds and it can trick, as well. The NikNak is a great choice if you aren’t interested in too many tricks, but it will fly in no wind all the way up to 10mph, I think.~Rob.

Interesting, but If you are prefer the Addiction or Nighthawk to the SF 2.5 UL I don't think we are flying the same kite or we have radically different tastes in kites (and I like the the Nighthawk a lot).

+1.

I don't think you can get a better tricking kite for the same low cost of the SF. I've yet to fly anything else in its price range that I really liked.

The SF is slow, stable, reliable, and predictable to fly and trick. The UL needs a bit more wind than some other ULs, but it goes reasonably low. Hate to say numbers, but I'm sure I've flown mine in 2/3 without much effort - 3/6 is ideal. I preferred the UL to my QPro SUL.

For a fairly cheap, but very capable trick kite try looking at the HQ Jive. Here in the UK it retails at around £70, it flies very nicely from a genuine 4mph ( maybe a little less) to around 20mph ( HQ quote 24mph but the wings are starting to flap at 20!). It's a tough little kite and, being made from simple 5mm & 6mm carbon tubes, it's easy and cheap to repair if anything breaks. It will perform almost any trick you can throw at it. It's a great learner kite with the potential to take you a long way, I prefer mine to my Addiction. I regularly fly inland and would throughly recommend it.

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